Incorporating customer empowerment in mobile health

摘要

The adoption of mobile services in many business sectors offers various business opportunities. But at the same time poses a great challenge for service providers and business organizations to grab the opportunities. Accessing mobile services through mobile devices equipped with powerful operating systems and a myriad of applications (Apps) such as smart phones or tablet computers are very handy and convenient. As most people are dependent on their smart phones for various reasons, mobile services accessible through smart phones are demanded. The healthcare industry should grab this opportunity by offering mobile health (mHealth). mHealth should be designed to offer customers a greater role in the decision making processes related to their health. Thus, customers (patients) will not only enjoy healthcare services online such as making appointments, viewing health records and having consultations through their smart phones or other mobile devices, but they can also participate and contribute to the discussion in information and knowledge sharing forums. In other words, consumers will be empowered' through mHealth. The aim of this paper is to present a model of mHealth that incorporates customer empowerment in three dimensions: personal dimension (mPersonal), social dimension (mSocial), and medical dimension (mMedical). In addition to literature review, a survey has been conducted to grab user perception as well as requirements for the model. The model can be used as a roadmap for healthcare organizations in embracing mHealth with customer empowerment embedded their services. (C) 2015 Fellowship of Postgraduate Medicine. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.